Smother (TV Series) Episode #1.1 (2021) User Reviews

Episode 1

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 23 June 2021]

It starts with the death on a clifftop of businessman Denis Ahern (Stuart Graham) who is pushed up by someone.

It then goes back to his wife's Val's (Dervla Kirwan) 50th birthday party. It looks like a happy occasion for a successful couple with a fancy mansion. A sign of their wealth.

Only at the party, Denis causes shock, surprise and resentment by announcing that he and Val are divorcing. That she has another man.

Denis wants to paint a picture of this being an amicable separation. Far from it, he is bitter and mean. Just another of his power games.

However he is found dead the next day and the police investigate.

A nicely judged opening episode set in County Clare. The set up introduces the Ahern family. Val's three daughters all having something to hide.

I did like the pacing not being bogged down with the Scandi noir introspection and moodiness.

So Far So Good

[Mehki_Girl · 6/10 · 5 July 2021]

This starts off with a scuffle on a cliffside and the patriarch of the family falling off. We then move to a 50th birthday party for the wife. It's clear that her boyfriend is at the party. The three daughters of the couple all seem to have something to hide. We learned that perhaps one of the daughters, Grace, might have mental or emotional illness.

Dad then announces at the party that he and the wife are divorcing, which comes as a shock to her and not something she really wanted to announce at her birthday party. Grace takes this to heart and tells everyone to get out. Mom leaves with her boyfriend but not before the husband meets him outside apologizes for the way that he announced the divorce and then stuck his hand out for the boyfriend to shake, which he does after hesitating. The husband then calls him a name and tells him there is no way he's giving up his wife and that is wife will come back to him once she finds out what the boyfriend is all about.

Wife leaves and spends the night with the boyfriend but he never tells her what husband had to say. They are then interrupted when a policeman shows up at the door and tells her that her husband was found at the bottom of the cliff and she must go to the more to identify his body.

At this point it's pretty clear that Dad is an a hole and always has been and has cheated on Mom and I'm going to guess that Mom has never told the daughters what was going on. A lot of parents don't want to ruin the image of a parent to their kids and then when something goes wrong, the kids blame the the injured party that they are the ones who are at fault.

Everyone gathers at the mom's house apparently Grace was missing all night because she did run off and Grace now tells the mother to get out of the house she no longer lives there and that everyone thinks that she pushed the dad to suicide.

There are several sightings of Grace during the night. She went raging to a friend's house who's now dating and pregnant by Grace's ex. Mom is worried Grace may have something to do with dad's death.

I think this is going to be one of those dramas where people leave things unsaid and therefore creates a comedy of errors and misunderstandings.